Thanks to ANSYS SPEOS’ human eye model, these simulations will give engineers an accurate representation of what the submarine control room will actually look like.

How to Simulate the Lighting Design of a Submarine Control Room

The first step is for engineers to import the geometry of the submarine control room into SPEOS. In this case, a simplified geometry of a control room is used.

The next step is to define all materials in the model. From there, engineers can start defining light sources within the control room.

The goal is to ensure the homogeneity of the illumination within the control room, while reducing glare, reflections or other lighting conditions that can negatively affect the human eye.

Simulating each light in the control room one at a time can help engineers determine which shadows and reflections are cast by which light. In the above simulations, you can see that this particular light creates reflections and shadows on the floor of the control room.

Lighting Ergonomics of a Submarine Control Room

The ergonomics of a monitoring station is limited if its screen shows glare. Glare can limit an officer’s ability to assimilate the information displayed on the screens. To eliminate glare, engineers must perform a closer inspection of the lighting around a monitoring station in the submarine control room.

The scenario can be rendered within a real-time virtual environment, so engineers can track what a naval officer would see if they were walking near, or working at, a monitoring station.

After each light is optimized for the control room and the monitoring stations, it's important that engineers assess the lighting ergonomics of the complete environment.

In other words, it’s time to simulate all the lights at once. This is the best way to test and optimize the homogeneity of the light within the control room.

Once the assessment is completed for normal lighting conditions within the submarine, the engineer will have to repeat the process for night lighting conditions.